Question Authority
"Question Authority" is the ninth episode of the second season of . It originally aired on June 25, 2005. It begins the four-part finale of the Cadmus story arc that concludes the season. Plot The rogue New God Mantis is rampaging through Metropolis. He proves a handful for the combined powers of Superman and Captain Atom, but Superman manages to open a boom tube and a blast from Captain Atom sends him hurtling back to Apokolips. No sooner has the dust settled than Lois Lane arrives and reminds Superman that they have a date. As Superman flies away with her, Captain Atom is surprised to be hailed by General Eiling, in full dress uniform. Eiling informs the captain that his commission in the U.S. Air Force has been reinstated, and it is time for Atom to make a choice between his country and the League. Over a picnic, Lois gently tells Superman that the Justice League's recent heavy-handed behavior is making some people nervous, and that people haven't forgotten the time when Superman was under Darkseid's control. With Huntress's help, the Question steals a series of high-security files from a government terminal, hoping that it will finally provide proof of a link between Lex Luthor and Project Cadmus. Inside Cadmus, Luthor is examined by Professor Hamilton and is shocked to be told that his Kryptonite-induced cancer has disappeared entirely, as if it was never there. Amanda Waller arrives and informs them of the theft. In his apartment, Question cracks the files and begins to review them. He finds the footage of the Justice Lord Superman assassinating President Luthor in the Justice Lords' alternate dimension and is shocked. , "A Better World" After days of poring over the data, he becomes unhinged, believing that the same thing is fated to happen in their world: Luthor will become President, Flash will be killed, and Superman will attack the government in retaliation – Except that, according to Cadmus simulations, the resulting war between all the metahumans of the Justice League and humans will destroy the world. Huntress walks in, demanding to know what he's been up to, but Question runs out, determined to out a stop to it all. Huntress views the tape and appears just as shocked. Question confronts Superman, who assures him that he would never do what the Justice Lord Superman did, even if Luthor does become President. Question is unconvinced, and decides that the only way to prevent Armageddon is to kill Luthor before he takes office. He goes to LexCorp to do so, but Luthor swats him away with a display of inhuman strength that surprises both of them. He confesses that his entire presidential campaign is nothing but a bluff, “a small part of a much grander scheme”. Question is taken to Cadmus and tortured by Dr. Moon for details on the files he stole. Question rants about various conspiracy theories during the interrogation, but he doesn't give up any important information. After Question disappears, Huntress kidnaps Jimmy Olsen and uses his special watch to call Superman. Telling him about the tape (which she assumes is a fake), they track Question's comlink to a garbage dump. Huntress fears the worst, but Superman points out that they just dumped his comlink, not his body. They conclude that Question has been taken alive by Cadmus. Superman initially refuses to help her, insisting that the League cannot act without legal grounds. But when Huntress points out that Cadmus is interrogating Question under the government's authority, Superman agrees to help, by only by the book. They smash into Cadmus and as Huntress fends off the guards, Superman looks through a wall and sees Professor Hamilton. Realizing his role in the conspiracy, Superman confronts him, and Hamilton doesn't deny or regret what he's done, insisting that the world needs protection from Superman and his kind. He reminds Superman of how he himself once threatened Hamilton personally. Superman leaves in anger, but then Hamilton sags, as though exhausted, with a concerned look on his face. Together, he and Huntress break into the cell where Question is being tortured. As they are leaving, they are stopped by Captain Atom, who says that he is now taking orders from the government to stop them. Continuity * Superman mentions Mantis's presence on Earth due to a civil war which began after Darkseid's death in the episode "Twilight" and was the background of the episode "The Ties That Bind". * Lois Lane refers to the events of the finale "Legacy" and to the embarrassing confrontation between Superman and Captain Marvel in the episode "Clash". * Question is still searching for a link between Lex Luthor and Project Cadmus after being tasked to do so by Batman in the episode "The Doomsday Sanction". * Luthor's Kryptonite poisoning that was first diagnosed in the episode "Injustice For All" is finally cured. * The footage which Question and Huntress watch is a re-animated version of the opening scene of the episode "A Better World". * Question refers to Superman attempting to use his heat vision to lobotomize Doomsday in the episode "The Doomsday Sanction" as his Justice Lord counterpart did in the episode "A Better World". * Huntress uses Jimmy Olsen's special signal watch from the episode "Superman's Pal". * Superman reminds Huntress that she was fired from the Justice League in the episode "Double Date". * Dr. Moon tortures Question by showing visions of President Luthor killing the Flash with a shotgun, heavily implying that this is what occurred in the alternate universe prior to the events of the episode "A Better World". * Superman realizes that Emil Hamilton was responsible for Supergirl's clone in the episode "Fearful Symmetry". Background information Home video releases * * Justice League - The Complete Series (DVD) * Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Blu-ray only) Production notes * Question's interrogation scene was purported to be carried out by expert psychologist Dr. Hugo Strange. According to Dwayne McDuffie, Strange's cameo in "The Doomsday Sanction" was a set up for this scene but the Bat-embargo made the character no longer available, and was replaced by Dr. Moon. * In "Critters" , Bruce Timm expressed some regret for not including Farmer Brown as a member of Cadmus, instead of Doctor Moon. It's unclear, however, whether he said that in jest, seeing as Farmer Brown had no expertise in psychology. * Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that the video that the Huntress assumed to be fake was the alternate universe White House security tape given by the Justice Lord Batman to Superman and passed on to the mainstream universe's President.http://jl.toonzone.net/episode46/episode46.htm * In the DVD special feature "Cadmus: Exposed", Bruce Timm humorously observed that Question's attempt to kill Lex Luthor was likely the first time in animation history where a hero outright planned to murder a villain in cold blood. Production inconsistencies * The first time Mantis is shown rampaging atop a building, he doesn't have his Mother Box on his hip. In the next scene, it appears. Trivia * Superman and Captain Atom defeat Mantis in the "Plastino Street Station", an homage to Al Plastino, the Silver Age Superman comic artist. * This episode reveals that the DCAU version of Captain Atom is named Nathaniel Adams. He was named Allen Adam in the original Charlton Comics version, and Nathaniel Adam in the DC Comics version. * In DC Comics, General Eiling is the original antagonist of Captain Atom. First, he framed then-Captain Nathaniel Adam for murder, which led to Adam's disgrace, court martial, and imprisonment. Then, Eiling blackmailed Adam into participating in the military experiment that transformed him into living energy and shunted him twenty years into the future. During the years of Adam's absence, Eiling married Adam's wife and raised Adam's children as his own. Even after Adam returned and became Captain Atom, Eiling was his commanding officer for years, and constantly made life difficult for the quantum-powered hero. * The Cadmus data files names contain at least three nods to the comics: ** "Zarathustra" may be a reference to the codename to the British government program that created Miracleman. ** "Multiverse" is a DC Comics continuity construct. ** "Flashpoint - 23" may refer the next episode which is the 23rd episode of . *** The number 23 also has significance to the Illuminati group that Question mentions. * The Question claims that his distaste for Luthor as a human being is "Brobdingnagian". This adjective refers to the fictional land of giants from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The adjective has come to describe anything of colossal size. * This is the third time that Superman and Lois Land have kissed. * The Question states "A is A" when talking to Luthor, a tenet in logic and philosophy called the Law of Identity. It states that everything that exists has a specific nature. * Question's theory about fluoride ties in with his "Got Flouride?" poster seen in "Fearful Symmetry" and "Double Date". * The "magic bullet" mentioned by Question refers to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, specifically to the single bullet theory which hypothesizes the existence of another assassin besides Lee Harvey Oswald. * The Question mentions the Illuminati, a secret society subject of many conspiracy theories. Probably not merely by coincidence, some elements of the DCAU version of Cadmus bear a resemblance to the way the Illuminati is traditionally portrayed in fiction as an alliance between big business and a shadowy branch of the government. * Dr. Hamilton compares Superman's betrayal with that of Lucifer, the first and most loved among the angels in the Christian tradition until he betrayed God and was cast out of heaven. Cast Uncredited appearances * Crimson Fox * Shining Knight * Steel * Jimmy Olsen * Flash (Justice Lord) Quotes Footnotes Category:A to Z Category:Justice League Unlimited episodes